And supports in 60 minutes,
so I think we're gonna talk fast.
I'm Sherry Schoenberg,
I'm here with Cassandra Townshend and Anne Dubie.
And this is kind of an exciting session for us today
because we love everything to do with PBIS
and like to talk to people about what it's all about.
Having been at it since like 2008,
we have about 170 schools that are implementing PBIS
in Vermont and many, many thousand,
in the 20 some odd thousands nationally.
So this is obviously something we're very passionate about.
And we welcome you to this session today.
Just before we get started, a couple of little logistics.
We will have you muted since, you know,
there's more than a few of you.
It's just easier for the sound to have you muted.
But we'll communicate through the chat box.
So if you find your chat, you'll know how to use it.
And you can decide whether you wanna show your video or not.
And here is a link to our materials,
which Anne had also put in the chat box.
And once this session is done,
we'll get it up on the website within a few days,
the recording will be up on the website, so, you know,
if you miss anything really valuable on Friday night
or something, you might wanna watch it again,
but we're happy you're here.
So we would like to know before we get started,
what brings you here today.
If you can chat us up a little bit about that,
it will help us know what to emphasize or not
and just know a little bit about who's here.
You took the time in your schedule
to come to this webinar today.
Learn as much as you can.
Good. Nicole.
Where are you from, Nicole? You wanna type that in?
Oh, nice.
Wanna know how to implement a PBIS school.
Oh, they always come so fast, (laughs) it's hard to...
K-8 school counselor, Folsom. Wonderful.
Oh, Nicole from the, from Ed Quality Division,
so you work with Josh, wonderful.
Thank you for sharing, that's great,
it just gives us an idea of, you know, who's here.
Thank you.
What we're gonna do today in a very short time
is provide sort of an overview of the PBIS
as a multi-tiered framework.
And we're gonna spend a little bit more time going deeper
into the universal level or layer of PBIS,
and then, you know,
just a little peek at targeted and intensive levels of PBIS.
And then if you're from a school that's exploring
and thinking about implementation,
the kinds of next steps you need to go through
to make that happen.
So that's what we're doing a lot.
And then we're gonna give you just a little poll
to get an idea of where your familiarity of PBIS is.
Am I launching this poll?
I just launched it, so-
-I can't see it. -Should be able-
[Sherry] Wait.
Should be able to see it.
Give me a thumbs up if you're able to see the poll.
Thank you so much for that feedback.
And go ahead,
let us know what your current level of familiarity is
with PBIS.
You know a lot, you know, a little bit. I'm just learning.
Oops, sorry.
So let us know.
And then once folks have completed the poll-
Can't get that off my screen.
[Cassandra] I'll be able to share the results.
Did you guys see that?
Okay.
All right.
I'm not seeing many people complete the poll,
and I'm wondering if you're not able to,
Anne, are you able to see the poll?
Worked for me.
Okay, thanks for that feedback, Amy.
Okay, I am not seeing lots of,
it sounds like you all are completing it, which is great.
All right, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna end the poll.
Are you all able to see the results of the poll?
No.
All right. Excellent.
Thanks, everyone.
So we've got a little bit of a mix here, which is great.
So thank you all.
As Sherry said,
looking forward to sharing with all of you PBIS today.
So thank you very much.
Okay.
So, and anybody who knows a lot, who said they know a lot,
feel free to just chime right in,
-we love that. -(Cassandra laughs)
Okay, so PBIS is a prevention framework,
and it's really important to share the word framework
because it is not manualized practices that you implement,
it really is like, it's like the MTSS framework.
It is an MTSS framework for social, emotional,
behavioral learning, and wellbeing.
And if implemented with fidelity,
you get the systems in place that help put practices
into place that are culturally responsive
as well as ensure access to all levels of PBIS for everyone.
What we really like about PBIS and have seen so much of
is that it's really can be tailored to your unique setting.
So like large school, small schools, diverse schools,
people have really worked very hard.
And the more stakeholders they have involved with them,
the more they're able to bring voice
to what it should look like in their school,
and it really becomes part of their community culture.
So PBISS provides you with that capacity
to really make it your own because it's a framework
and not like, you know,
this is what you're supposed to do.
It involves an integrated continuum
of evidence-based practices.
We really look at what are the most promising
or proven practices so that we are really trying
to be efficient and effective with implementation.
So we wanna choose practices that work.
I'm getting some feedback all of a sudden.
Did anybody else hear that?
You're okay.
Yeah, I just, I muted.
-Okay. -A participant FYI,
if you could go ahead and mute yourself,
that would be wonderful.
-Thanks, everyone. -Okay.
It's also based on the principles
of applied behavior analysis.
So everything in PBIS,
we think about from the standpoint of function.
What is the function of behavior?
How can we understand why an interfering behavior
is happening in order to meet that function
in a more adaptive way?
So the history of PBIS comes from the science
of applied behavior analysis and then more
because over the years, we have evolved to do so much more
in terms of social-emotional learning within this framework,
and it's associated with improved academic
and behavior outcomes, and that's our goal.
And so we'll talk a little bit more
about that circle Venn diagram in a second.
But we're trying to move away
from these traditional approaches to discipline that,
you know, they even happen today.
When there's interfering behavior,
sometimes the response is reactive.
We don't really think about what the problem is enough
to analyze it and come up with a appropriate response.
Also, a lot of our responses to interfering behavior
could be non-constructive, they may stop the behavior,
but does it really do anything to support a student to
move into a better place?
We know that a lot of schools have emphasized punishment
around interfering behavior,
and you could see that in like the handbooks
that come out from schools every year
where there's multiple pages of the negative consequences
for certain behaviors that occur,
and we're trying to switch that around.
But that is definitely in our history,
this focus on punishment for behavior
that is interfering academic learning.
And we also know that, unfortunately,
the way professional development works,
sometimes we go to trainings,
and we learn about these great new practices,
but we don't necessarily have the coaching or the time
or the system to help us implement practices with fidelity.
So they might be really terrific strategies,
but we sometimes lack that in our history,
that whole sort of,
how are we gonna make this practice really work
kind of thing.
And a lot of times, there are limited effects
to the traditional behavior discipline approaches
that we've had.
So we're trying to move away from Mrs. Mutner
on the first day of school,
giving all these rules about don't do this, don't do that,
no biting, no kicking, no running, no coming in late,
no coming in early.
It's quite a list.
And you can see the students are stupefied here,
but we're trying to turn that around
and become a little bit more about come in on time
and keep your eyes to the front, and things like that.
What to do, not what not to do,
so that's, we're moving away from that.
And PBIS, there are some misconceptions about PBIS,
and one thing that I think I'm already implying
in everything I'm saying
is that it's not a packaged curriculum.
You really can take the practices
that have the best potential for success for you,
and implement them within the framework if they work.
So it's really adaptable,
and it's the framework that makes it strong
so that you can do it.
It's not a manualized strategy,
it's not just a reward system.
I think there are a lot of misconceptions out there
that PBIS is about little tokens, and it's not,
it's part of providing feedback for pro-social behaviors,
but it's not about that, that's a part of it,
to ensure that students are being recognized
for doing what the agreements are in the school.
And it's not about compliance.
We're not asking people to follow our expectations.
We're asking people in a school to develop them collectively
and have meaning for them.
So that's just sort of trying to allay some of the myths
that are out there.
And this is my favorite diagram that really to me shows
the strength of PBIS and why it is so sustainable
and why it's been around for a long time now.
So PBIS is a framework that has a system in place
that includes things like your administrator
supporting this as one of the number one priorities
in the school,
so making the time and the space to have a team
that's gonna do the planning
and support the adults in implementing the practices.
The system also includes having your education plan,
be listing that as a priority and resources that you need.
And we have a lot of BEST Act 230 money out there
that supports professional development
and planning for school.
So the system is critical to supporting the adults
and implementing the practices.
And the practices, we're trying to find practices
that are positive but also have some evidence
that they're gonna be successful.
And we wanna think about what's the smallest thing we can do
to have the biggest durable effect.
So that team,
that part of the system is really trying to examine
based on your data, what's needed in terms of practices.
And so the team will look at data, both student outcome data
and fidelity and implementation data
and also things like inventories of practices that you have
to figure out what the school needs
and to try to find that,
select the best practices that make a difference
so that students will be successful academically
and behaviorally.
And that is the tattoo
that we all like to think about having.
I actually have one of those fake tattoos of this
because I love it so much.
And it's an equal emphasis on systems, data, and practices.
And as you saw, I gotta go back,
as you saw in the diagram, equity is at the center.
We wanna make sure that everything we're putting in place
in terms of our system is accessible to every single student
at every level of PBIS.
So just going a little deeper with equity,
we're really focusing on access, representation,
meaningful participation, and high outcomes.
For access, we wanna make sure that students
have the opportunity to be involved
at every level of decision-making and implementation,
that they're part of our teams
and that they provide feedback and input
into making a difference
and that it means something to them
and they want to be involved
and participate in everything we do with PBIS,
so that's why we need their voice and input
at all those levels.
And the goal is high outcomes for everyone.
So that's what we think about
when we think about equity in PBISs, access, representation,
meaningful participation, and high outcomes.
Now, you may have seen this before,
this is the triangle that helps you visualize what PBIS is
in action, and this is based on the public health model,
and what it is is that if you have all your practices
in place with fidelity at the universal level,
so all those really rich supporting
learning kinds of strategies at the universal level,
80% of your students are likely to be pretty successful.
And there are some students
that will need a little bit more than that,
and so we add on a layer
or a particular intervention for a period of time.
And if everything is implemented with fidelity,
about 10 to 15% of students at a given time might benefit
from targeted interventions, which is the yellow.
And then with that, with all implementation fidelity,
roughly 5% of your students
will need something more individualized
on top of all the rich universal strategies,
perhaps a targeted intervention, which is like,
those are like off-the-shelf interventions
that aren't that individualized,
and they need an individualized plan to support that.
And I think that this thought bubble is really saying
that we need to have a very, very strong
universal foundation.
And we focus so much,
we're always, anytime we're doing a training,
we're focusing back on the universal level
to ensure that students aren't falling through the cracks
because they didn't have the practices available to them
at the universal level.
So we really want to make sure that students
who need something more need it because they need it
and not because we have missed out on supporting them
at the universal level.
And so that's what we mean in terms of equity
is like a tier-one issue.
I mean, it obviously exists throughout,
but we really wanna have the strongest
universal level possible.
And this is sort of this Rastafarian diagram
that shows you that we don't call students,
red students or intensive students or yellow students.
Students are students,
and they have so many strengths that they bring into school,
and, like this is an example of Dylan who has, you know,
really strong responses to universal interventions
around his relationship with peers
and reading and attendance,
and he has good relationships with adults.
He's, might need a little bit extra support in science,
but math is a bit of a struggle.
So he might need some interventions around math.
And emotional regulation is something
that he's really struggling with.
So we wanna support Dylan by really acknowledging
some of the strengths he has in these other areas
to address some of his emotional regulations issues.
And it's really about...
Something we really, really emphasize is,
we might want to label the behavior that's the interfering,
but not the student.
And we're not calling students red students,
or we're not calling them IEP kids or trailer park people.
We're really moving away from that
'cause Dylan has so much going for him,
we're just calling him Dylan.
Hope that makes sense.
Anyway, PBIS is an iterative process.
So it's a little rough at start when you're at the start
when you're trying to explore this whole framework
for your school,
there's a lot of effort that goes into sort of gearing up
and being ready to roll out something that is school-wide.
So there's this planning time,
and then there's the, well, let's try it out,
we'll do some initial implementation,
and then it might take two to five years
before you really got it to be part of the fabric
of your school.
So it's definitely a long-term implementation process
that has implementation dips,
and so that's why you see the yellow arrows
going back and forth because, you know,
in our history here, you know, we've had, you know,
schools go back to the beginning,
and our team has been quite responsive
by offering refresher kinds of trainings
to get sort of back on track again.
But the idea is that, you know,
we're just always trying to continuously improve with this,
and it's a process that takes a while.
So now like what really is PBIS, (laughs)
at the universal level, PBIS involves these things,
first, there's a statement of purpose,
it's sort of like, why are we here in the first place?
You have a leadership team, and they need to construct
a statement of purpose so people understand the importance
of the work that's going forward
and how to access them and who they are.
So that's one of the first things we do
in putting these components in place,
is really get a strong statement of purpose.
And the next thing that happens
is the team along with feedback and input
from all of the important people,
which would include students and staff
and family caregivers, is to define agreements or, you know,
three to five agreements or expectations,
so those are sort of broad behavioral terms
that you can build some lessons around and,
but that people will know like with automaticity.
So like you go into a school and say,
"What are your values?"
Or, "What are your agreements here?"
And people will know what they are, you know,
we are respectful, we are kind, we are safe.
And it becomes sort of, again,
I think I used the term in the last slide,
the fabric of the school, this is who we are in this school.
So they're developed together,
they become agreements that people feel pretty strong about.
The next component of PBIS at the universal level
is probably the most important component of all,
which is explicit teaching of those agreements
in the different settings of the school
so that students can really understand
what the expectation is.
They might have different expectations at home.
So this is a way to help students support students,
and knowing exactly what we mean by the expectations,
and when developed together with the students' voice,
it really becomes, you know,
sort of owning up to the agreements that are in the school.
The next component is,
once we demonstrate these pro-social behaviors,
it's providing positive feedback and acknowledging students
for following the expectations.
And we'll talk about that a little bit deeper
in a little bit.
And obviously, we need to have our systems
and practices in place to prevent
and respond instructionally to interfering behavior.
And so we wanna have a continuum of supports in place,
and that's where the system comes in,
that team is going to help all staff know
what the strategies are and what the process
and procedures are for responding to behaviors
that are interfering.
And then we use data, in PBIS, we are data-driven,
and wonderful tools exist
from the National PBIS Technical Assistance Center
on fidelity of implementation,
and we also have student outcome data,
that we have a web-based system that we help schools use
to make really informed decisions about prevention,
teaching, and responding.
And the big idea
is that you want these three to five expectations
to really reflect the values of your community,
and this is what,
in the last few years, we're really pushing.
It's like we all need to own them in a way
that feels right to us, and we need our voice in that,
and we really just wanna have that common language,
again, I said with automaticity,
knowing what they are and a way to teach the behaviors.
So that's like a, the big idea.
And here's some examples of how some schools
have defined their expectations,
some of these are kind of old, but we really like them.
And as you can see, they really do make it their own thing.
We have, you know,
usually their mascots are part of their expectations.
I particularly like the Fairfield school-wide rules
that are listed both in English and in Spanish,
and then the more high school version, the wolf pack one,
this is how you make it part of the fabric of your school.
And we particularly like this example from Dothan Brook,
Dothan Brook,
"We are safe, we are caring, we are responsible."
Their mascot are the otters,
and there's a nice shift in language here.
Instead of be safe, be caring, be responsible,
it's that sort of, we all are this,
we are all responsible for this.
So we like that shift from do it this way to no,
we are this way.
So that's something that we're encouraging schools
to think about,
shifting their language to do that kind of thing.
And I just love this photo of champs,
well, there's a lot of enthusiasm.
I remember when the school was beginning to roll out,
this is Proctor Elementary School,
and they have pompoms, and they have shirts,
and it really becomes sort of a celebration of social,
emotional, behavioral learning, and well-being.
And I just really like the positivity there.
And this is also an old slide, but this was not uncommon,
you could see these rules hanging maybe outside
of your all-purpose room that say,
"No, this, no that."
And we're trying to shift that to be safe,
be responsible, be respectful,
and then further that to we are all of these things.
So once you have your defined expectations,
you wanna create, and the teams will work to create
what we call a teaching matrix.
And we want to be able to identify what the behaviors
that we agreed to look like in action
in the different settings.
If you're in a school,
you will see all the settings along the top of the chart
that will show cafeteria, hallways, all settings,
classrooms, playground.
But we'd like to show this one
because the expectations can also be carried into home
and can be,
the family can come up with their own expectations,
so we extend some of that to the home
and what it might look like socially with friends,
so this is sort of a new teaching matrix.
And then the teams with the voice of others
will identify what does it mean in that setting,
so what does we are safe mean at school?
And it means keep hands and feet to self,
tell an adult that there's a problem.
So there's the skill, there's the context,
and there's some examples of what it looks like.
And then you build your lesson plans,
your explicit lesson plans from there.
And the big idea is that we wanna teach the behavior
that we've agreed to just like we teach academics,
and we need more opportunities to respond.
I mean,
it takes a hundred hours to really learn a new skill.
So when we think about just reviewing those expectations
at the beginning of the year on the first week
is not really explicitly teaching,
it's something that we need to teach and practice
and prompt and pre-correct throughout the year.
It's the biggest component of PBIS,
is the effective teaching that happens.
And this is just,
this is a saying that we've used over time.
We really like it
It's kind of like strange when you think about,
"If a child doesn't know how to read,
we teach the child to read.
If they don't know how to swim or multiply or drive,
we teach them to drive.
If a child doesn't know how to behave a certain way,
what is our tendency?"
So I think this author of this is saying,
"Do we punish?
Why is it so hard to complete the sentence?"
So we really wanna think about behavior as a skill
that needs to be taught.
And this would be kind of how you would design a lesson
to explicitly teach the agreements or expectations.
What does it look like? How do you do it?
When do you do it? Why is it important?
And then having differentiating ways to teach the skill
and then the reteaching prompts and pre-corrections.
And you just keep practicing until the behavior is fluent.
And you use your data
to help you focus on where you might need to teach again.
So I wonder if there are any questions at this point.
We have a nice quiet crowd.
Yeah, feel free to use the chat box, raise your hand.
Happy to entertain any questions you all may have
before I jump in,
and I'm gonna start talking about the question,
which is really the feedback.
So before we begin, any questions, wonderings, thoughts?
Oh, Erica, hi.
Hi.
So I have to say, so I'm a special ed director,
and my boyfriend is a principal at a very small school
up in Northern New Hampshire.
And I was helping him,
this is the first year that I've worked in a school
that is doing PBIS, what I say well,
and I want to continue, you know, that.
And I noticed that when I was helping my boyfriend
put up signs and things that he was using these matrices,
and I was like, "Oh, well what are these?"
And so he was explaining it, and they have them everywhere.
They have, you know,
they even have like a reward book vending machine
that they just purchased, And the kids are all in.
He's in a K-5 school.
And I wonder what it's like trying to implement this
with older kiddos.
So I can totally see the buy-in, you know,
with like pre-K through five, maybe six.
But I'm wondering what it looks like with, you know,
middle school and high school kiddos.
You wanna answer that, Cassandra,
-or do you wanna- -Sure.
Evelyn, I'm happy to jump in.
From my experience is,
it's definitely somewhat challenging at times
to implement at the middle and high school level.
And the key to that
is really getting collective ownership from students.
And so finding creative ways
to engage your students in this system process,
so having them at the table
for the leadership team conversations.
Where we've seen it successful
is when it is led by students.
And I've worked in a middle school previously,
and they ran it, they ran our middle-level meetings,
and they came up with their feedback system.
They embraced competition in this particular school.
So their voice and choice and guidance
through that collaborative collective ownership
with adults in the building
really made it successful at that level.
And I think that's what we're seeing nationally too
at the high school level in particular,
is really how are we flipping it?
So really the ownership and the decision-making
and the creativity is really led by our students.
Thank you.
Yeah, I just wanna add though, it is harder,
and we have way more elementary schools implementing PBIS,
and would love to see middle and high schools.
It takes a little bit longer
because of that collective ownership really needs to happen.
But we have a few exemplars in Vermont
if you're wanting to reach out to anybody.
Thanks, Erica. Great question.
[Sherry] Okay.
I am just linking right now before I jump in,
The slides are here.
I'm putting them into the chat again for those of you,
if you need the slides, again, they're on our PBIS website,
and so you'll be able to see them.
All right.
Well, we're gonna keep going just mindful of the time.
-So, (faintly speaking)- -Cassandra,
there's just a couple of more questions in the chat box.
Okay.
Funding for schools to get updated posters,
we have a matrix.
You, maybe help me, Cassandra,
I think BEST Act 230 funds
might be able to support materials.
Do you know?
I'm not sure actually if they are.
However, what we have seen in schools
is really a prioritization of local budgets.
There's lots of local budget line items that are,
that, you know, principals and admin can create a line.
And that's where we've seen a lot of that.
We've also seen many schools reach out to community
and businesses and think about,
which is also a wonderful way to build that collaboration
between your local community.
We've seen donations,
we've seen other opportunities for schools to engage
and funds for those resources that way.
Title funds, that's a good question, Erica,
good suggestion, that may be used as well.
I do know, and I'll, a little spoiler alert,
at the (laughs) end of this session,
I'll reference a resource from the Agency of Education
that really identifies the various funding sources
for social-emotional learning and behavioral supports.
And so certainly,
lots of (faintly speaking) there to explore resources.
Thank you.
Let me see if I, sorry,
I wanna make sure I'm not missing anyone in the chat.
Anything else?
I think you're good.
We're good.
Okay, thank you. Thanks, Sherry.
All right.
So Sherry talked about a couple of the first few features
of PBIS implementation,
one that is critically important is the feedback system.
So where Sherry had mentioned earlier,
some of the misconceptions of PBIS
is really that we're rewarding kids, right?
We're really thinking about reframing that.
Similar on the academic side,
we give students feedback on one plus one, right?
Three, we'd say, "Hmm, one plus one is not three," right?
So very similar to the academic world, we need feedback,
we need to know what we're doing well
and what are some areas we may need improvement on.
And so really, the acknowledgment feedback system is,
in PBIS is often more for the adults, to remind ourselves,
to focus on the positive, focus on what we're seeing well.
Oftentimes, we do tend to focus on the negative,
and so we really wanna shift that narrative.
And so we have systems,
and many of our schools have created systems
so that it's prompting the adults to notice
the positive behavior that's happening in their school.
And some of the big ideas
advance the next one, Sherry,
is that what we know about behavior
is we can't change behavior.
What we can change is our response
to what we're seeing in that environment
and also our environmental setting, right?
So it's really about us
and how we can change how we respond in situations.
And then really focusing on giving feedback
on what are the behaviors that we wanna see
rather than focusing on the interfering behavior, right?
So, again, flipping that script.
And what we also know is that behavior is learned, right?
We want to provide facilitated feedback for our kiddos
so that they're getting that positive interaction.
We also know that positive feedback has a greater likelihood
of shaping behavior than negative feedback.
So, again, flipping the script, focusing on the positives
so that we're actually having a positive impact
in really great timely feedback for our students.
And so a key to this,
which we're thinking a lot more about,
is thinking about this authenticity.
I don't know about you all in schools, but we know,
and from my lived experience, students are very savvy,
children are very savvy if,
to know if you are not genuine in your interactions, right?
So we really wanna focus on how are we giving feedback
in an authentic way.
We also know that feedback is critically important
for skill acquisition, and it's reinforcing.
And so we really wanna make sure we focus on that.
Some of the keys to feedback,
it's gotta be immediate, right?
As soon as the student displays what you want them to do,
you gotta give them that feedback.
You also wanna make the feedback contingent
on a direct observation.
So sometimes, we'll hear people give positive feedback
to their students in a very generic way.
Great job, that is not very specific,
it's not really contingent on an observation.
And so we wanna make sure when we are pairing feedback,
it's immediate, it's contingent,
and we're really naming it, wonderful job.
Holding the door for your friends,
you're showing me that you are taking care of each other,
which is then connected to your school-wide agreements
that are developed by your context and your school.
So really focusing on that.
Next slide.
And what we know,
the research shows us that we really wanna focus
on four to six positive adult-student interactions.
If you look at marriage research,
you'll find very similar information,
you'll find very similar ratios.
Work relationships, marriage relationships,
we really thrive when we have positive interactions
compared to negative interactions.
Before I jump into this section,
I just wanna monitor the chat.
We have a questions,
how are teachers assessing themselves
to ensure they're using the right strategies
and implementing universal strategies for students?
So, Amy, specifically around the feedback system,
there are lots of, if that's what you're referring to,
there are lots of different assessments
that we encourage teachers to do,
one is, if you have a trusting colleague,
have them go into your classroom and do a tally,
how many positive interactions are you having
with your students?
And again, that's creating this culture of trust.
Certainly, we've seen schools use that
to really give sort of timely feedback.
I have found we often think
we're giving lots of positive feedback
when in fact if we have a colleague
really do a quick little observation, we may find out,
hmm, we may not be giving as much positive feedback
as we initially thought.
So good question.
Sherry, did you have anything you wanted to add to that one?
Well, just more broadly than that,
there are some really good fidelity tools,
but every intervention that we support schools
in implementing should have a data system attached.
How are the students doing?
Are the students improving from this intervention?
And so you're keeping track of student outcomes as well.
And then there are some particular interventions
that have fidelity assessments.
Are we implementing like we're supposed to be?
Like check-in/check-out
has a really nice fidelity assessment.
So we're definitely driven by data
to see what direction we should be going in.
Yeah.
Absolutely. Thanks, Sherry.
Thanks, Amy, great question.
So another feature of PBIS implementation
is really thinking about how are we preventing
and responding instructionally to interfering behavior
through a continuum of support.
So this is thinking creatively around what are our practices
for preventing interfering behavior,
how are we identifying and operationally defining
what is interfering behavior
within the cultural context of our school,
because certainly, what's interfering behavior
in one setting may be very different.
And so we really encourage our schools
to have these conversations
around defining what that looks like.
And then when we do experience an interfering behavior,
it's really important
to think about how are we gonna address that
instructionally.
As Sherry mentioned, it's not about punishment, right?
It's about how are we teaching,
reteaching the pro-social behavior
that we all have decided as a community
is what we wanna see in our school.
And so really thinking about those.
And our team spend lots of time having conversations
around making sure that we are really proactive
in having really thoughtful responses
when there is an (faintly speaking) behavior.
And part of that involves this big idea.
We want all of our staff members in our school
to think functionally.
Again, we know there's a some underlying reason
for students' behavior.
There's any underlying reasons for adult behavior, right?
So thinking about that, one, behavior is communication,
so what is a student trying to communicate?
And then thinking about what are they trying to get?
What do they want? What is the function of their behavior?
And so this is a really helpful orientation
for adults to have
when they're seeing an interfering behavior,
'cause then it changes how you perceive it.
Instead of thinking, "Cassandra's a jerk," right?
You're really thinking that,
"Wow, she's trying to communicate something.
She may not be communicating it in the best way.
Let's think about the function of Cassandra's behavior,
and then let's pair that with what does she need," right?
How can we get to that in a pro-social way
through instruction?
And how we do that is through data.
As Sherry mentioned,
we use data all the time in really making plans
around our behavior and our interventions, right?
One of the keys is when we collect behavior,
it's not to punish, it is a record-keeping mechanism,
it's patterns of behavior,
that's how we like to think of it.
I may engage in a certain behavior over and over again,
that is certainly a pattern of behavior
that would allow a team using a data system to say,
"Wow, we need to do something different in our environment
to support Cassandra
because we're noticing this pattern of behavior.
What can we do differently to support Cassandra?"
Just as an example, right?
And so along the same lines,
prevention is the best response, right?
We need to focus on our classroom climate.
We talked a little bit about having ownership,
collective ownership.
Two things that I've heard school say recently
that is super helpful
when they're talking about creating collective ownership
and also positive school climate, clarity and consistency.
So how are we creating clear agreements?
How are we as the staff collectively being consistent
in our response?
And then ultimately, we want students to internalize
and have that self-discipline.
So, again, here's a nice little visual,
a continuum of moving from disruptive behavior
to sort of teacher (faintly speaking).
We wanna see increased instructional time,
increased academic learning,
and obviously, that leads to increased academic success.
And the way we measure this for our kiddos,
not only in the large context, but individually,
is looking at our data.
And Sherry, did you wanna jump in?
No, I just, I have sounds coming outta my computer.
I can't figure out how to stop.
Oh, okay, sorry. (laughs) I just wanna make sure.
Feel free to jump in, team.
And again, feel free to type in the chat as well
if you have any questions.
So again, in PBIS implementation,
many of our schools are using a data system called SWIS.
It allows you to have very immediate access
to behavior observation data.
And again, this tells you and gives you a big picture
of not only what's happening for your larger population,
so what's happening across school-wide data,
in the cafeteria.
What's great though is our schools also use this
to drill down.
So if you are finding a student
is having a particular pattern of behavior,
you're able to drill down with SWIS.
And so we encourage schools,
doesn't matter what system you have,
we don't work for SWIS,
we have found it to be very user-friendly
for many of our schools.
But the bottom line is we have to,
a key feature of PBISS implementation
is having an accessible database system
so that you can pull your data from
to really make decisions.
And so what the decision-making looks like
is the next slide,
which will show you this problem-solving process,
where schools will look at this data
with their leadership team
or whatever team has the ability to do this,
to look at how are you gonna prevent this from happening?
What do we need to do in order to teach, reteach?
How do we need to give more feedback
when we're seeing the positive pro-social behavior, right?
How are we going to, you know,
extinguish the behavior that we're seeing
by increasing feedback for the desired behavior, right?
We also wanna think about, there are ways of, you know,
correcting behavior, so pre-corrections,
various ways to have conversations and develop a plan
around that, and then finally, data collection.
So this is just an example
of how our schools implementing PBIS will look at their data
and then funnel it down into a really tangible plan.
And this is just a quick example from a PBIS coordinator
in Allen Brook, how they were able to use their data
to manage some of the most significant behaviors at recess.
And so we're seeing lots and lots of examples
across our schools really utilizing their data,
implementing a practice or intervention,
and seeing really positive results.
And so, again, big idea here with PBIS implementation,
we talked a little bit about this,
is that student, family/caregiver voice is valued,
and it's honored,
and it needs to be at the forefront of implementation.
Success of implementation with fidelity
is really tied to collective ownership.
And so part of what we also do,
as Sherry had mentioned previously,
is thinking about some of the,
how do we get feedback from our staff?
How are we engaging families and caregivers?
On our PBIS website, we have several resources
and assessments that allow our schools to say,
"Gosh, we need to get input. How are we doing?"
And so, would certainly recommend,
if you're curious about some of those resources,
check out our website.
Another huge big idea is restorative principles
and approaches, right?
We're not just punishing, we're thinking,
"How are we engaged in restorative principles?
How are relationships intertwined?
How are we embedding voice?
How are we engaging everyone?"
And not just simply having somebody attend a meeting,
a meeting,
how are we really engaging in meaningful engagement?
And how are we getting everyone
who needs to be at the table at the table?
What we find is we find in many schools
and from my lived experience,
we have the same people
volunteering for the same different committees,
the same groups.
Who are we missing?
And so that's a question we challenge our schools,
thinking about that, how are we embedding these principles?
How are we making sure we're getting all voices involved?
And so some of you may have seen this,
this is from the restorative world,
and it's really a continuum.
Traditionally,
many of our practices have been on the further end,
they've been exclusionary,
they've been really mandatory, compliance driven.
As we continue to evolve in our work, our hope and goal
is to move towards the other side of this continuum.
We want inclusivity, we wanna make sure we,
our people are participating, we're repairing harm.
And so many of us probably can find,
look and reflect on our school
to see where are we on this continuum.
And so we share this as we are always evolving.
If you're not all the way over here, that's okay.
This is work that we all are doing,
but really, that is the goal with PBIS
and using this restorative lens and approach,
they're not different,
so we're thinking of how are we aligning these.
Big ideas. again, all students, all settings all the time,
all means all.
I used to have this poster on my office
as a friendly reminder.
We're really focusing on everyone,
and it's not fully implemented.
PBIS is not fully implemented
until it's implemented with fidelity
and within the cultural context of our schools.
And so being very thoughtful about that is critical.
And if schools are implementing PBIS with fidelity,
we are seeing not only locally, but at the national level,
really positive outcomes for PBIS.
And so if you are a research data junkie
like myself and Sherry, we have lots of resources,
and there's lots of data out there
that really speaks to the positive outcomes.
Certainly, improves student outcomes,
reduced exclusionary discipline we're seeing in schools,
teacher, positive teacher outcomes, efficacy, well-being,
relationships, school safety,
wonderful things that we're seeing.
And in Vermont in the past few years,
and we're gonna start thinking about how to update this.
When we, during COVID, some of our data,
as you can imagine, was changed slightly.
Not for the worst,
it's just we really prioritized making sure,
you know, things are safe.
Many schools focused on sort of the here and now.
However, what we're seeing when schools are implementing
and with fidelity,
we're seeing lower rates of out-of-school suspension.
And so we're actually as a state team exploring that now,
looking at how we're gonna move the needle on that.
But again,
it's been great to see previously before the pandemic,
how we are moving the needle with schools
that are implementing PBIS with fidelity
and a reduction in out-of-school suspension rates,
and so we're gonna continue looking at that.
I mentioned this briefly already, but again,
fidelity of implementation is the name of the game.
You wanna, if you're gonna do something,
you gotta do it well to see those positive outcomes.
And so we really wanna focus that on that with our schools,
and continue to not only focus on that,
but find ways to support all of you in this work
because it certainly takes a village, but our goal
is really thinking about how are we implementing
with fidelity, which is essentially the degree
to which an intervention is delivered as intended.
And so we'll be focusing on that and supporting you.
Before we get to some nuts and bolts,
I'm gonna very briefly talk about the targeted
and intensive levels of PBIS,
knowing we have about five more minutes,
and then I'll share with you some additional resources.
PBIS at the targeted level essentially is,
how are we looking at those students that Sherry mentioned
who may need an additional layer of support.
When we think about targeted layers,
it's often small group intervention
for about 10 to 15% of our student population
after we've implemented universal.
And I wanna be clear with the word choice of layer,
if you're familiar with the field guide,
we are really layering.
As students receive targeted level of supports,
they also receive access to universal supports.
So we're not saying they're not supplanting,
they're supplementing.
So we're in addition to those supports.
And so PBISS at the targeted level,
one of the most common interventions you'll hear about
is check-in/check-out, it's really an intervention
that will allow more adult-student interaction
and more opportunities for positive feedback,
so think small group intervention.
Intensive levels of intervention within the PBIS framework
is essentially thinking about those students
who may need highly individualized specific interventions,
perhaps in addition to a targeted level,
in addition to the universal as well.
And so thinking about individualizing
a check-in/check-out plan,
individualizing any sort of a targeted plan.
What we're finding
is often those targeted level interventions
can be considered an intensive-level intervention
if you increase the frequency and duration of that support.
And so thinking a little bit about that.
If you wanna learn more about the targeted
and intensive level, certainly go to our website,
which you'll see on the next slide.
We have a training scope and sequence there.
We also have lots of awareness activities coming up.
We're hoping many of our schools are able to attend
our annual VTPBIS Leadership Forum on October 12th.
If you haven't heard about that yet, well, go to that link,
you'll learn.
We have a lot of wonderful workshop opportunities
for schools.
We've also created several micro-learning,
so these are standalone online modules
that many schools are using
to share information around PBIS,
not only at the universal level,
but targeted and intensive level,
so please check those out.
We have the national website as well,
which has a plethora of resources.
Also pbisvermont.org, we update that frequently,
looking for other resources as well.
So many of you from the poll have,
are already involved in PBIS implementation.
But some next steps are,
if you have any questions or wonderings,
we have lots of TAs to support you.
We have a lot of really great activities that are new
around how are we obtaining this,
what we're referring to as this collective ownership,
One of those is called a compelling why.
Our purpose and why we're doing what we're doing
is so incredibly powerful in moving the work forward.
And so, certainly lots of activities.
Again, this is the process that schools typically go to.
We have a lot of readiness steps.
So if you are,
have neighboring schools who aren't implementing,
certainly share this information with them.
There's lots of pre-training activities,
and then baseline data is often collected.
The next slide shows a little bit more
about the readiness checklist that we have available.
Again, we want schools to implement and implement well.
And so we spend a lot of time with y'all on the front end,
How are we going to make this work?
And so lots of resources for you.
The cascade of support is next.
If you are a PBIS coordinator,
I think some of you on here may be a coordinator,
you at the school and district level have an important role.
You have lots of resources available to you, your TAs.
We have trainers,
coaches available to support you in your journey.
And we also have lots of funding resources
available for you as well on the next slide,
and this is the slide that I mentioned previously.
The AOE has put out this great resource
with various funding options
so that you're able to look at how we can continue this work
through funding.
TAs can't put a bigger plugin for our state TAs.
On the next slide, Sherry.
We have fabulous TAs. They are free for you.
So please reach out to your TA
if you have questions or need resources,
they are there to support you in all that you do.
And again, a great resource.
And please stay connected with us.
Let us know how you're doing. We love hearing from you.
If you have a amazing resource, let us know,
we'd put it on the website.
We'd like to blitz things out to the community
'cause we certainly are a big family.
So check us out on Facebook.
Share resources on Twitter/X, I guess is the new thing,
I have to get used to that.
But thanks again for your time.
Would love to open it up, it's right at 10 o'clock,
to any questions you folks may have.
Also wanna let you know that at the end of this session,
and we'll send you an evaluation survey.
Please let us know how this worked for you to this morning,
and you'll be prompted
to receive a certificate of attendance.
So, we're happy to stay on,
would love to answer any questions that folks have,
and really just appreciate you taking the time
out of your busy day to spend time with us this morning.
Great to see all of you.
Thank you for coming.